Why we have insecure borders

Immigration – Why we have no Border

Politicians love the topic of immigration. Even the meekest office seeker or incumbent becomes a Wild West sheriff promising to “lock down the borders”. The toughest of the “get tough” candidates argue to personally deport millions of illegals. We are now actually building walls. Show me an example where a wall did not become the rallying point for the problem. The current hype is about issuing drivers licenses and debating open admission to colleges. What about fixing the problem so we don’t have any of these silly debates? Is that too much to ask of Congress?

The United States has a legitimate worker shortage. If we had no immigrants we would have hundreds of thousands of dirty, sweaty jobs looking for workers. And what has Sue Myrick done? She has fanned anger, distrust and fear against immigrants. Why won’t she fix the problem? The Charlotte area should be leading a fix because our growth has been instrumental in creating the demand for workers. Her job was to see that we got the workers legally, safely, and in an orderly manner. She slept while illegal immigration grew.

Her sleeping in Washington and fanning anger, distrust and fear has made our community less safe. Any al-Qaeda operative building a terrorist organization on our soil will need a place to hide, a place where they won’t be turned in. That place will be among frightened people; that place will be in frightened immigrant communities.

The best security is having an organized process for filling our jobs. The first part is having an “America Works” movement where we train and help relocate chronically unemployed Americans to the areas of our country where we have more jobs than workers. Even with an “America Works” movement we will still need immigrants.

Orderly immigration means having employers register their jobs through the government. Overseas workers should be able to apply and get their visa; the only hassle will be a background check and biometric registration. Employers would then have access to the labor they need. When the labor needs are met legally - illegal immigration disappears.

Why does Sue Myrick sleep? We all dislike the “illegal” part of immigration; but I think Myrick does not like the “immigrant” part either. This is a message to Sue Myrick: Americans are not angry, distrustful and fearful. We are a strong and honorable people. Sue, learn from history. In the early 1800’s people fanned anger toward the Chinese, but they built our railroads opening our country to our industrial boom. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s people fanned anger toward the Irish, Slavic, and Eastern Europeans, but these people went into the bowels of our cities and built the infrastructure we still stand on today.

Our need for workers is legitimate. If we fix the problem in a comprehensive manner our borders become naturally secure and the last place for al-Qaeda is in an immigrant community. Wages will stay strong and working conditions safe. And we will no longer have to debate how to issue drivers licenses and provide education. Oh and finally, what about the 12 million people here now without a visa? Thanks for the headache Sue. We can deport all 12 million (a dumb idea) or meld out penalties to those that broke our laws, including employers, and move on without malice.

Sue –If you don’t have the courage to fix the problem, stop whining about the problem, leave Congress, and let me do the job.

Ross Overby
Candidate U.S Congress 9th District